Storage apparatuses are designed to provide data storage areas to applications running on host computers (hereinafter, “hosts”) such as server computers. In general, the storage apparatuses include a number of physical storage medium and a storage controller which organizes logical storage areas from physical storage areas included in the physical storage medium and controls data input/output processing between the logical storage areas and the hosts.
As the physical storage medium, hard disk drives (hereinafter, “HDDs”) can be employed, for example. Moreover, RAID (Redundant Arrays of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks) is generally employed which uses multiple HDDs to provide redundant logical storage areas, in order to improve the reliability of stored data.
As for small-sized storage apparatuses, it is desired to improve the cooling capability of the storage apparatus itself because of further decrease in the size of the chassis, increase in the number of mounted HDDs due to increase in data capacity, and increase in the amounts of heat generated by major components such as processors. To do so, multiple fans are provided to a functional module, e.g. a power supply module, accommodated in the storage apparatus, and a cooling airflow generated by these fans is caused to flow through the entire apparatus. In this way, a cooling capability necessary for the storage apparatus as a whole is secured.
For the cooling of a computer subsystem such as a storage apparatus, a related technique is disclosed in Patent Literature 1, for example. Patent Literature 1 discloses a configuration in which: a common path through which cooling air is caused to flow by blowers is set within a computer subsystem; and a cooling air volume provided by the blowers and the paths of the cooling air can be adjusted to match cooling capacities required by devices disposed in various locations in the subsystem.